


The Flyer

by ZScalantian



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29772468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZScalantian/pseuds/ZScalantian
Summary: AVALANCHE's flyers keep popping up in her life, maybe it's time to take a closer look at the group.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6
Collections: FFVII Secret Spring





	The Flyer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sanctum_c](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/gifts).



> This is a gift for sanctum_c, in deference to their preference I will be using the name Aeris.

Aeris wasn’t selling too well today. In the gloom under the plate, people’s eyes caught on the yellow and white blooms in her basket and they commented “How pretty!”, but no matter how much she dialed up the charm, only a few had bothered to buy. She was starting to wonder if she should try her luck above plate. The people up there had other sources for flowers, so she didn’t make as _many_ sales, but they tended to buy bouquets, not single flowers. Two or three sales often emptied her entire basket.   
But… if it was a bad day, the proceeds would barely cover the train fare. Hmm. What to do?

After another hour of no sales, she was fed up. If no one here wanted flowers, then it was late enough in the day to go topside. She never went during the day. It was too easy to bump into someone looking for her. At night, even if the sky was lit up by light pollution bouncing off the smog, making a heavy green ceiling for the city, the back alleys were dark and unlit. She could disappear down one when she felt uneasy. 

On a wall near the train station, she spied flyers proclaiming AVALANCHE’s mission to fight Shinra for the good of the planet and the people. She’d seen the posters and leaflets for years, but it seemed like there were more of them cropping up lately. Graffiti supporting them, too.

It was nice to see evidence of someone fighting against the company, that there were people out there who cared about the planet. Aeris herself didn’t have the nerve to be so loud about it. She kept her head down, afraid the company would drag her away if she drew too much attention. That they would pluck her out of her life and put her back in a cage with harsher walls than the invisible one she lived in now.

Of course, AVALANCHE, years ago, had tried to kidnap her. They’d wanted her for the same reason as Shinra, to lead them to the promised land. She laughed to herself. Leaving aside that she didn’t know where the promised land was, let alone how to get there, she was a horrible guide. She got distracted and made detours. That whole thing about the journey instead of the destination. Neither Shinra nor AVALANCHE would know what they were in for if they tried making her take them there. 

There might not even be a ‘there’. Her memories of her mother talking about the promised land implied it wasn’t a physical place. They had often been under surveillance, so her mother had embellished the legends she told Aeris, making it hard to pick out the truth. The promised land was hope, or death, or the future, or the lifestream. Maybe it was all of them. Maybe she had missed or forgotten something from the stories, and it was something else entirely.

She looked at the AVALANCHE flyer again. _Thank you for fighting, and please stay far away from me_ , she thought and stepped onto the train platform. 

The train left the station right on time and wound up a support pillar, taking her up above Shinra’s steel sky.

Lights gleamed off slick pavement and music and rich scents wafted out of open doors in Sector Two’s restaurant row. Upper-middle-class Shinra employees lived in the neighborhoods near here, and one sector over, in Three, the penthouse apartments of the rich speared the blurry green sky. The shops were open still, catching restaurant patrons on their way to or from dinner.

Aeris walked three blocks, looking for a good bit of sidewalk to claim as her own, and was handed three flyers, two coupons, was catcalled once, asked out twice, and had a perfume sample sprayed in her face. It wasn’t Wall Market - nobody swaggered like a street tough, nobody openly carried weapons, the clothing was less flashy and in-your-face. The general sleaze factor was a lot lower. These were just shop workers, trying to drum up a last little bit of business at the close of the day, and well-fed and -watered diners on their way to the movies or a club or just back home.

It still brought a smile to Aeris’s face. Above plate or below, people were always people. They hustled to get by and spent their gil on things they enjoyed. She drew the cover off her basket. What could be more enjoyable in the greenery-starved city than fresh-cut flowers?

Her luck was worse up here tonight than down below. People smiled at the blooms but walked on by. A clocktower a block over chimed out two hours’ passage as two Shinra MPs came down the sidewalk. Aeris tensed, but continued holding out a golden chrysanthemum enticingly. “Flowers,” she smiled. “Fresh flowers! Mmm! Smell that fragrance!”

The MPs stopped in front of her. Aeris allowed herself to hope, for a moment, that they would purchase something. Nope.

“You from a shop nearby?” All she could see of their faces were officious-looking chins and mouths. They both seemed fairly young, in their mid to late twenties. The only discernible difference between them was that one had very hairy forearms.

Permit? She’d never heard about needing a permit. “No, sir. Do I have to be?”

Smooth-arms looked her up and down. “You from the slums?”

The hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she became keenly aware of the dirt on her boots and hem of her dress. She expected the Turks, if they decided to really come after her again, to do the job themselves, but she couldn’t rule out that the troopers might bring her in if they knew who she was. “No, sir,” she lied. “I’m from Sector Five. My parents are smelters.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Hairy-arms, to his partner as much as to her. He faced her squarely. “Clear off. No peddlers. We’ve had complaints.”

Aeris glanced around, at the barkers in front of their shops, down both sides of the block. Nobody looked back at her. They were all ignoring the little drama - better not to get involved. None of them wanted the attention of the MPs either.

All the same, what an injustice. Aeris wasn’t even raising her voice. Compared to the behavior of the others, basically shoving their hand-outs in the faces of passers-by, she was positively demure! If there were complaints, they couldn’t be about her. Why had she been singled out?

She looked around again and realized. She was an outsider. There weren’t any florists on the neighboring blocks, so the MPs knew she didn’t belong. And nobody would speak up for her, even though she was doing no harm. Everyone up here was afraid of running afoul of Shinra, scared they would be cut off and cast out, of falling through the cracks in the plates and ending up in the slums.

* * *

  
Another day, another sale. Back in the familiar territory of the Sector Five slums, Aeris still felt sour about the night previous. No peddlers her ass. She stomped along the grimy streets in a huff. Stupid Shinra. Why did they get to decide everything? What gave them that right? She looked around at the people she passed in the streets. Some seemed happy, others stressed. All going about their ordinary, everyday lives, the lives the people above plate were so terrified of experiencing. 

For a moment, she entertained the fantasy of everyone banding together to challenge Shinra’s rules, making a fairer, more equitable city. 

Her shoulders sagged. Maybe if enough people spoke up a change could happen, but she knew there weren’t enough people willing to risk it. Not even her. Why run the risk for something so dangerous, with such little chance of success? Shinra had so much power. All anyone could do was focus on making their little corners of the world better. 

Speaking of people who tried to make things better, three members of the Sector Five watch came around a corner towards her. She recognized their faces, the way she recognized almost everyone in Sector Five, but she didn’t know their names. Blood and dust speckled their clothes and their scuffed, hodgepodge armor. They must have been out exterminating monsters. A little ping of misery echoed around her heart. For years, watch members had asked her, only partly joking, when her SOLDIER boyfriend was gonna get back and take the job back on. 

On a whim, she stepped into their path. “A flower for the watchhouse?” She held up a yellow lily.

They came to an uneven halt before her. “Huh?” The woman in front, who had warm brown skin, a lively smile, and a red bandana knotted turban-style around her head, recognized her. “Hey, it’s the flower girl from the old church.”

“That’s me! I wanted to give you a flower for the watch house as thanks for keeping the area safe.”

The woman took it, smelled it, and passed it to the tall, heavily freckled woman behind her. “That’s mighty sweet of you. It’s our pleasure to help the neighborhood out.”

There was one man in the group, a shotgun slung over his shoulder. When he nodded, his curly hair bounced with the motion. “We’re just doing our part to help out.”

Aeris was still sour over last night’s run-in with the MPs. “Well, you’re much nicer and do a better job than the troopers Shinra sends.” Shinra never sent anyone to the area unless things were way out of hand. Zack had volunteered his time.

“Of course we do, we live here! Shinra doesn’t know anything about the area,” Curls groused.

Freckles agreed. “More, they don’t care about us down here.”

Smiles considered her. “Not a fan of Shinra?”

“Who is?” asked Curls.

Aeris knew that individual people in Shinra weren’t always bad. Some people had been kind to her as a little girl, within the limits they could risk or afford, and her heart clenched at the memory of Zack and his infectious smile. But on the whole… She shook her head. “A definite _no_ on the company.”

Smiles looked thoughtful and dug into a pocket on her armored vest. She held out a flyer. It was the same type that Aeris had seen stuck on the station wall the day before.

“If you ever get tired of being crushed by them and want to do something about it. For your family, loved ones, your future. For the planet. Contact any of the sector watches, we’ve got supporters in all of them.”

Aeris was a little hesitant to take the flyer. She wasn’t keen on getting involved with the militants, even if these members seemed more pleasant than the ones she’d met before. “I’m not much of a fighter,” she demurred. She had her staff, collapsed at the bottom of her basket, ready to use if she needed it. But it was for self-defense, really.

“Not sure if I’d be of any use.”

“There’s more to it than just fighting.” Freckles’ bony face was eager. “Spreading the word, raising money, just helping people get by. We all have to stick together.”  
Aeris understood the feelings behind those words. She’d just been thinking about those very things. But she couldn’t trust AVALANCHE. These three knew who she was, but not what she was. However, someone in their resistance movement did. Just because it had been a few years since they came after her didn’t mean the risk was gone.

Still, she didn’t want to provoke them or make them think she didn’t respect their cause. She took the flyer. “In exchange for the flower, then.”

As they walked away, she folded the paper into a small square, tucking it into the bottom of the basket next to her staff.

* * *

Five days later, she decided she needed a change of pace and went to sell her flowers in Sector Seven. It had been a while since she’d been to this sector. She meandered her way past a pop-up market, down gloomy streets lined by ramshackle houses, making her way toward the pillar. The people there lived furthest from the plate edge and the natural light that found its way into the slums, and perhaps because of how cut off they felt from the natural world and the planet, they were more likely to buy flowers than those who lived near the rim.

Aeris heard raised voices echoing down an alley. They were distorted and echoey, and she couldn’t make out the words. Officious, bossy voices - the watch? Or Shinra? And then a woman’s voice, raised and desperate. After a quick debate of whether or not she should check it out, she retrieved her staff, extending it to its full length. She told herself she was just going to take a peek and see if a monster or a mugger needed a good thwacking.

She peered around a plywood wall and her eyes widened. A dozen of Shinra’s troopers were bullying a handful group of Wutaian immigrants into a truck. Five men, two women, and seven children. One little boy was clutching a cactuar doll to his blue t-shirt, a picture of uncomprehending fear. A trooper spotted Aeris peering around the corner and called out, “Hey!”

She didn’t wait to see what he had to say. She turned tail and booked it across the sector. Panic gave her wings. Eventually, she collapsed against a wall, gasping for air, certain that they weren’t chasing her. If she closed her eyes she could still see the fright on the child’s face. It mirrored her own fear at the thought of being taken.

She hadn’t helped them. Had just saved her own skin. A frustrated scream clawed its way up from her twisting gut, and she clenched her jaw tight, holding it in. She hated this feeling of hopelessness. How she was unable to help anyone, save anyone, from her very own worst fear. But that’s how it was, after all. If she told anyone what she’d seen, they would curse the company, they might check on their Wutaian neighbors, but they wouldn’t do anything to help the people who’d been taken. And if Shinra came to their neighborhood, they wouldn’t stand up for the Wutaians there.

Her breath hitched. There was one group. One group that did fight Shinra, that might even be able to save someone from Shinra. She ran down the alleyways and grabbed hold of the first person she came across. “Where’s the Sector Seven watchhouse?”

That’s what she’d been told, right? That every watch had an AVALANCHE sympathizer with a way to get in contact with the resistance? 

She followed the instructions she received to a three-story building with tin roofing. Men and women in partial armor, holding guns and spears and swords, stood out front chatting.

“Hello?” She felt nervous about talking to them, but frustration and anger bolstered her. “I just saw Shinra kidnapping a bunch of people and I don’t know who to tell.”

Those who had been resting jumped to their feet. “You serious?”

She nodded and pointed. “It was off Level Street, not far from the market.”

“That’s an immigrant area, people from Wutai.”

“I’ve heard about that. Shinra’s been rounding up folks and saying they’re Wutai spies and militants.”

“They weren’t. Some of them were just kids.” She described the whole scene to them. As she went on, she saw their unease and fear. 

A man in a ripped denim jacket and leather armor turned to her, frowning apologetically. “I’m not sure what we can do…”

Her shoulders sagged. So much for them being any help. She almost turned away, but a small cluster of three whispering caught her eye. Unlike the others who were angry and distressed but not _doing_ anything, those three seemed to be discussing something in urgency. They were all wearing red bandanas, just like the woman who gave her the flyer. One of them ran off, a tall man whose long legs carried him quickly out of sight, while the woman noticed that Aeris was watching them. She gave a little wave and Aeris trotted over to them.

“Are you going to help?”

The woman was petite and brunette, with sparkling brown eyes, and she nodded. “We’re going to try.” 

“Thank you,” Aerith said with complete sincerity. “You’re AVALANCHE, aren’t you?”

They both tensed, then Sparkle-Eyes flipped her hand dismissively. “Nah. We’re just members of the watch.” 

“Hmm.” Aeris didn’t believe that. “You know, I actually came here hoping to find AVALANCHE. The watch helps keep the neighborhood safe, but AVALANCHE are the ones who fight Shinra. If anyone can save the people I saw, it’d be them. Right?”

The man with her, black-haired and round, laughed. He sounded nervous. “That’s what their flyers say.”

She regarded them again. “Well, thank you for trying to help.” She picked out her words with care. “I used to be scared of AVALANCHE. I thought it was a group of angry hooligans who didn’t care who they hurt, but you’re just regular people, aren’t you?”

Just people. Everyone was just people. There was no huge monolith. Shinra was filled with good and bad, AVALANCHE was filled with good and bad. The whole planet was filled with good and bad. Everybody had some of each. Though - her hands clenched in her skirt - tearing people from their homes and taking them away to who knew what fate was solidly in the bad column.

The two resistance members exchanged glances, then Sparkles faced Aeris. “All we want is to make things better.”

“Will you really be able to help?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll try. Biggs went to talk to some friends, see if they could set up roadblocks, and catch the truck. If they can stop it, before it reaches the tower, it’ll all be okay.”

“I hope so.” She prayed they would make it in time. “Are your friends reliable?”

They exchanged another look, kind of an awkward one this time. “AVALANCHE isn’t any one group,” said Nervous. It seemed like they’d decided to stop pretending. “And the factions don’t always agree on how to do things.”

Sparkles leapt in, anxious to reassure Aeris, it seemed like. “But none of them can ignore something like this! So they’ll help, for sure.”

“Mm. That’s good.” The initial adrenaline that sent Aeris flying from the abduction scene and to the watch house was fading, and she was beginning to feel grayed out.

“Hey.” Sparkles touched her arm. “You know, looks like this really rattled you. You want to hang with us for a while? You can stay in the loop on the rescue plan while recovering with a good drink. We all can have some cathartic complaining about the company, too. I know this great little bar, not far from here. Seventh Heaven? Ever heard of it?”

Sparkles and Nervous seemed really nice, and so had the lady from the Sector Five watch. Maybe none of them, none of their little factions, knew anything about her. Maybe if she went with them, she could actually fight back about Shinra - She shook her head, dismissing the thought and declining Sparkles’ offer. For her, the risks were too high.

“I should get home.”

* * *

Aeris avoided Sector Seven for three weeks. When she did go back, she steered clear of the neighborhood where the incident had happened. If AVALANCHE hadn’t been able to save those people, she didn’t want to know. 

She’d sold half her basket when she felt the lifestream tugging at her. It was hard to describe, as always, but the sensation was somewhere between someone whispering slightly too low to hear clearly and standing in the current of a deep river. She frowned. The planet had a habit of answering her curiosity, leading her to answers. She’d learned at an early age that following it was sometimes worse than ignoring it. Sometimes, it was better not to know.

It nagged at her for another hour until, with a huff, she turned and followed it. The light dimmed as she made her way deeper under the plate towards the pillar and the pop-up market. She kept selling flowers as she followed the invisible pull, dragging her feet.

She found herself in a narrow alley, approaching a crying woman sitting in the doorway of a ramshackle house. Did she really want to do this? Her feet carried her forward anyway. She knelt in front of the woman and saw that she was clutching the stuffed cactuar toy. There was a rip in green corduroy and cotton stuffing was protruding out. There was no noise or light in the house behind the woman.

“Ma’am? I’m Aeris. I heard what happened.” She hadn’t only _heard,_ she’d seen and run away. But this woman was in enough pain, Aeris didn’t want to add onto it. Anyhow, she hadn’t wanted to come, and to try and get some kind of absolution from this devastated mother would be incredibly selfish.

The woman looked up. Her face was red and puffy and her voice was ragged. “Who…?”

“Aeris. I sell flowers.” She held out her half-empty basket. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

The woman’s eyes dropped back to the damaged cactuar. “They took my son. Some people tried to stop them, and a few people got away. Someone brought Toge back to me. But not my son!” She pressed her face into the toy, weeping.

Aeris could feel the connection between the child and the stuffed toy. She stepped into the current, followed it back to pain and fear. A little boy’s voice, sobbing just out of hearing. A shudder wracked her. It was the same feeling as when she pursued the faint trace of Zack. “Ma’am, I don’t know if it helps, but he’s still alive.” She took the remaining flowers out of the basket and laid them on the cracked concrete step beside the woman. “Have hope, okay? There are people who will try to save him.”

It was such a little thing, but the woman gathered up the yellow flag iris, white anemones, and purple daisies and held them clutched with the toy. She said nothing else to Aeris.

She stood, leaving the grieving mother. She had known, of course. She’d known that Shinra held others, hurt others in their labs. But until that fact had been thrust right in her face, she had ignored it. Facing it meant confronting a terrifying part of her past and the too real possibility of being dragged back there. The AVALANCHE flyer still sat at the bottom of her basket, right next to her staff. She was frightened, so frightened, but she didn’t intend to be a coward. She was impudent and brash, and today she would be brave too.

At the Sector Seven watchhouse, she asked for the brunette wearing the breastplate and red bandana. The woman wasn’t there, but they told Aeris that if she wanted to find Jessie, she should try Seventh Heaven or the theater. She tried the bar first.

There were only a handful of patrons at this time of day. Aeris was outside her home sector, so she didn’t recognize any of them. As she was about to leave for the theater, the short and athletic barmaid set aside a freshly-emptied tray of drinks and approached her. “Can I help you?”

“Hmm, maybe. I’m trying to find one of your regulars. Jessie?”

The woman’s maroon eyes lit with recognition. “She just went out! She’s running an errand for me.”

“Really? Do you know when she’ll be back?”

The barmaid sighed, regretful and commiserating. “It might be a while. I’m a friend of hers, maybe I can help? Or you can leave a message for her.”

Aeris crossed her arms. She was really going to do this, wasn’t she? “I’m fed up with Shinra.”

The barmaid's face went from open to considering, her voice turned to even neutrality. “A lot of people are.”

Huh. Aeris took in the shift. Who knew AVALANCHE and their supporters were so common? She didn’t see a red bandana anywhere in this woman’s clothes, but maybe not everyone wore them. “I want to help.”

**Author's Note:**

> Very minor thing but the Shinra MPs above plate weren't just being jerks, Aeris was the only one actively selling anything on the street, all the others were advertising.


End file.
